I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times Book Review, and this is the book review

It's arguably the most famous shipwreck in American history.

50 years ago this month, on November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior

with all hands aboard. With no survivors and no eyewitnesses to the disaster, there's always been a

sense of mystery around the sinking of the Fitzgerald. Add to that, a surprise hit song, Gordon Lightfoot's ballad,

the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and it's no surprise that the story of the Great Lakes

freighter has lived on for all these decades. This week, we are joined by John Yu Bacon, author of the

new book, The Gales of November, The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

John, thank you for being on the Book Review podcast.

Hey, Gilbert, thank you.

Now, you appear to be a Midwestterter through and through.

I am a New Yorker and East Coaster.

I don't know the Midwest as well as I would like, but I get a sense that the

story of the Edmund Fitzgerald is one that sort of lingers there. When do you first recall

hearing about this ship? Right on all points, first of all, and second of all, yes, the morning

after the accident on the Today Show, I was a sixth grader going to school, watching the show, and we all talked about it once we got to sixth grade, my class.

And that's always been a part of the zeitgeist around here, certainly.

So eight states border the Great Lakes, and I think everyone has got their own story about it, pretty much.

And where did you grow up?

In Ann Arbor, Michigan.

You grew up in Michigan.

You've written several books about Michigan football. You've worked at several Midwestern newspapers,

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